An eclectic blog on which appears daily one-thousand word essays on somethingorother.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

"TWELVE BLACKFEET STORIES" by Mary Scriver

Now available from http://www.lulu.com:

TWELVE BLACKFEET STORIES
by Mary Scriver
Description: Roughly twelve generations of Blackfeet Indians have existed since 1776 until now. Here are twelve loosely linked stories, one for each of those generations. These are about Amskapi Pikuni people, the Montana subdivision.
Purchase Date: 14-Aug-2006
Format: Download (698 kb) Get Adobe Reader

Also available from the same source as a soft backed book in the dimension of 8.5x11. It’s about 100 pages long, so if you download and print out the cost will be a bit less, but you won’t have a bound cover.

If demand justifies it, I’ll prepare a deluxe version with a hardback cover and illustrations of the artifacts mentioned in the stories.

These stories are written at a level that even young high school students could read and enjoy, but the subject matter might take some discussion. A “two-spirited” person, for instance, is a man who decides to live as a woman in woman’s clothes. A “cutnose” woman is one who has been punished for infidelity by having her nose cut off.

The stories would be excellent resources for someone teaching Blackfeet history. A time-line is included at the back of the book. The detail is as accurate as I could get it from being around here since 1961 and reading just about everything in print. But they are acts of imagination and I am a white woman, so take that into account.

My fondest hope is that Blackfeet will say to themselves, “Heck, I could write like that!” and then do it.

These are the stories and their time periods.

Dogwoman (1742 - 1766)An old woman protests that dogs were good enough for the ancestors.

Eats Alone (1767 - 1791A chief has everything but confidence in the Sacred.

Two Medicine (1792 - 1821)A young two-spirited man falls in love with a little blonde priest, thinking he is also a man in a dress.Horse Healer (1821 - 1841)A woman warrior is captured and taken over the Continental Divide.

Horizon (1843 - 1859)An exploring Indian goes back East and is mistaken for an insane person.Eclipse (1860 - 1882)A priest and a doctor puzzle over what to do with an old dead woman.Whiteout (1883 - 1900)An abusive wolfer is killed by his woman and her niece.Cutnose Woman (1901 - 1924)A woman unjustly punished for being unfaithful finds happiness unexpectedly.

Gay Paree (1924 - 1953)Three Blackfeet soldiers accidentally meet in Paris at the end of WWII.Basketball Warrior (1953 - 1969)A young athlete goes off to fight at Wounded Knee but never makes it.